Tax "evader's" $1.77m home was bought from NZ's single biggest fraudster

A $550,000 tax fraudster could serve his home detention in the Lower Hutt mansion he bought off the man responsible for the country's single biggest fraud.

Tao Li, also known as Adam Li or Adam Lee, was this week sentenced to 10 months' home detention for pocketing cash sales, money laundering and filing false tax returns.

The owner of Jacksons Cafe and Bistro in Petone, Lower Hutt, pleaded guilty to evading more than $550,000 in tax through what Inland Revenue lawyer Graham Tubb described as an "elaborate web of deceit".